Secret Keeper
by Lysana
Summary: What if Peter Pettigrew had been faithful after all? What if he had been just strong enough to defy Voldemort? His bravery could have made all the difference in the world -- but some things would have stayed just the same. AU. James and Lily Potter live!


Chapter 1: The Family Who Lived

"No!" Peter screamed, writhing on the ground in agony. He was trapped in the grip of Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse, and all his senses were flooded with pain worse than anything he could have imagined.

Voldemort briefly lifted his wand, letting the young Animagus' pain ebb away a little. "No?" he asked, halfway between a hiss and a laugh. "There is a very simple solution for that, my young rat." The evil wizard's eyes flashed with hatred. "Tell me where I can find the Potters!"

Peter Pettigrew's heart pounded wildly. He felt every bit as small and cowardly as the popular image of a rat. How could he hold out against such pain? But then he thought of his dear friends Lily and James, and their baby son Harry. _I am their Secret-Keeper!_ he thought, with a brief flash of far more vehemence than was his usual habit. _I cannot betray them. I can't!_

"Rats may be small and weak," he said between his own ragged breaths, "but rats are also tenacious. You're off your rocker, Who-Cares-Who! I won't tell you."

Voldemort did laugh this time, high and shrill and completely uncaring. Peter found an instant to marvel that any human being could feel such a total lack of love. Then his body exploded with pain again, and he seemed to hear his own agonized screams coming from a great distance.

_James... Lily... Little Harry... I hold the power of their secret. The spell is locked within me. I won't let this madman break the lock!_

Somehow, Peter's mind held onto that one determined thought in the face of all his pain and all of Voldemort's increasingly furious questions about the Potters' whereabouts. Finally, he felt a sudden burst of warmth and new pain in his chest, somehow different from the agony of the Torture Curse, and then nothing. Lying on the floor at Voldemort's feet, Peter Pettigrew had died the only way any rat can die: his body broken and destroyed by absolutely crushing damage. In his case, it had been what Muggles might have called a massive heart attack.

* * *

Days later, the Potter family came out of hiding. James and Lily had talked it over, agonizing over the fact that Harry was not old enough to understand or take part in a decision that affected him as much as them. Finally they'd decided that they could not live with themselves if they stayed tucked away behind their magical spell of secrecy while their friends were being hunted and possibly killed.

What they didn't know was just how vengefully determined Voldemort was to destroy them, and specifically them. And one night, Voldemort himself arrived at the small flat where the Potters' friends had found them temporary lodging.

James Potter backed slowly away from the vicious Dark wizard. The youthful father's hand did not shake as he held up his wand in a defending gesture, though he was very frightened inside.

"You can't come near my family!" he said defiantly.

"Is that so...?" Voldemort asked sarcastically. "Oh dear. I shall have to schedule another appointment." Suddenly he flicked his wand at James in a lightning-fast gesture. "_Expelliarmus!_"

James' own wand flew out of his hand, as he silently cursed himself for not having anticipated the Dark wizard's move. _I guess terror for your wife and baby will do that to you,_ he thought in a bit of dazed shock, _eh, James old boy?_ Horrified, he backed up against the locked door leading to their small bedroom. Lily had picked up Harry and bolted through that door only seconds earlier, after sharing the briefest of agonized glances with James when Voldemort burst into their home.

"I do not think so," Voldemort said very coldly. Pointing his wand past James' shoulder, he aimed it at the door's antique latch and doorknob. "_Alohomora._"

The door flew open, and James heard Lily's scream of terror behind him. An instant later her voice cried out in a fierce, quick spell: "_Petrificus Totalus!_"

Voldemort swept his wand a little to the side, deflecting Lily's precisely-aimed jinx the way a Quidditch Beater would have whacked a Bludger aside with his bat. As if reading James' thought, he laughed aloud.

"Playing Beater for three years at Hogwarts will teach you a thing or two," he smirked. "Of course, I've only improved on all I learned there. Too bad _you_ haven't."

Aiming his wand straight towards the three of them, Voldemort stared at them with an expression of absolute hatred. "I'll kill you all at once!" he snarled. James, stricken with hopeless fear, reached back and put a shielding arm around Lily and baby Harry.

"_Avada Kedavra!_" Voldemort nearly shrieked the spell in wild triumph. A wave of green light flashed towards James and his little family, and all three of them were knocked backwards into the bedroom as it hit.

Then Voldemort's shriek turned into a scream of horrified denial. The green magic rebounded and raced back towards him, filling the air with a light of blinding, sinister fury.

Blinking, James pushed himself up to a half-sitting position and looked out through the splintered bedroom doorway. There was no sign of Voldemort; James couldn't imagine what might have happened to make him disappear, but the amazing thing was that he was gone at all.

_And that we're not dead,_ James thought, his mind suddenly catching up to just how surprising that simple fact was. Beside him, propping herself up on one elbow with Harry cradled protectively against her other side, Lily looked just as confused. Harry, always a bright boy, seemed at least to be picking up on the fact that his parents were thoroughly shaken up.

The bewildered family huddled closely together, shaking in dazed relief. They could not yet understand what had happened or why they were still alive, but they would soon learn the truth. The love and sacrifice of their faithful friend Peter Pettigrew had saved them all, leaving them alive to bear the three identical lightning scars of Voldemort's failed curse.

* * *

Author's Note: I will be continuing this fic! I wasn't sure if I should leave it as a oneshot, but when I asked my sister Razzle she said, "That's a continue." And really, how could I let drop the opportunity I've set up for myself to write the alarmingly AU story of what things might have been like with James and Lily still around? So there will be more chapters sooner or later; probably later, since I don't know yet what to write next for this! But I really will update, I promise. Really! XD


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